I did it!!

[Headgardener]

Saluki if you are hoping to play with a Church worship group then your next n+1 guitar will more than likely need to be elctro-acustic or an electric one in order to plug into the sound system.

 

[ColinJ]

Saluki if you are hoping to play with a Church worship group then your next n+1 guitar will more than likely need to be elctro-acustic or an electric one in order to plug into the sound system.

When I bought my Tanglewood, I was originally looking at one that cost about £220, but then I noticed that the guitar next to it was the same model but with a hidden pickup or mic, and built-in eq. It only added about £40 to the price, so I bought that one instead, total price £260. I just noticed that they cost £440+ now!

 

[Saluki]

Saluki if you have 'nailed' those chords the next thing is to get comfortable changing between them and staying in time to a click track, metronome or just tap your foot as you strum the chords.

Now trying to change between A & D, then D & E and then E & A and other permutations of the same. I have a metronome on my phone and the hubster has decided to buy the Washburn cutaway acoustic electro in Antique Sunburst that was the one I didn't buy. I still think that the Epiphone is lovelier than the Washburn. It sounds about the same and its prettier.

I am using the Justin Guitar book in-between lessons. My tutor never said anything about strum pick strum pick. I have found doing that really helpful. There is a pair of CDs with the book for listening and copying and the book takes baby steps and is really clearly written and not without humour. I hope to - and am practicing towards - be able to change chords with a bit of competence by Thursday when I go to my lesson.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

One thing beginners often find difficult is making sure they only fret the correct notes in the chord and not inadvertantly touch other strings...i remember once looking inside a piano at the hammers that hit each piano string, how they only hit the relevant notes because they are shaped in such a way as to not clip other strings in error...I visualized each of my fingers as one of those hammers ..it helped.

Down Up down up down up down up

 

[delb0y]

Forgive me for a bit of self-promotion but I posted a You Tube lesson a few days back that may be of interest if someone is looking for a nice (temporary!) distraction from all those hard standard tuning chords... Playing in an open tuning can give you a great sound without too much left-hand effort and it's a cool way of practicing the barre that sits behind barre chords, because in an open tuning the barre itself (one finger across all six strings) is the chord.



Hopefully someone will find this mildly useful.
Kind regards
Derek

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I can't play but I have a signed guitar by Tom Morello who is one of the greats imho

 

[Saluki]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet but Youtube has a massive number of guitar lessons as well as instruction on particular songs.

I have been working on this one (it might not be considered beginner though), this guy does some of the better tutorials IMHO.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2X_oPbLB3M

We have his 'justin-guitar.com beginners course' book and its fabulous and have subscribed to his youtube channel too.

Saluki if you are hoping to play with a Church worship group then your next n+1 guitar will more than likely need to be elctro-acustic or an electric one in order to plug into the sound system.

The Epiphone is an elecro acoustic, its all tucked away inside. I thought ahead on that and it was a huge and massive £20 more than a similar guitar with no elecro dodah-ary so I thought that for the tiny bit extra it made sense.
Please don't be thinking that I am all Church worship. I have somewhere in the region of 8000 CDs and Records and only 7 of them are christian rock.

 

[Saluki]

2 post for the price of one.

Hubby went to the nice shop to get that Washburn that he so liked and tried a few others while he was at it and bought something completely different. He nearly bought the Epiphone Hummingbird but thought that we would look like 'his and hers' and changed his mind when he saw a Takamine eg321c


Its rather lovely but the frets seem closer together than on mine and I struggle a bit in comparison. Yes it was over his budget and he says that we will have to live on beans on toast for a week now (we won't as I filled the freezer up last week).

I have been practicing every day, watching the relevant 'justin' youtubes and having great fun. Our friends think that we 'have gone mental' so that's a bonus The guitar shop have recommended a different guitar tutor who doesn't just teach on Thursday afternoons, which I might bear in mind as I can't always do a Thursday afternoon due to work.
I have learned "Three Little Birds" and feeling well pleased with myself.
Onwards!

 

[Salad Dodger]

Well done Saluki for persevering!

And well done Mr Saluki for the choice of the Takamine: nice. (No disrespect to your Epiphone, though....)

I had a quick peek at one of Justin Sandercoe's books last time I was at the local music shop to buy strings. It looks pretty good, with a decent choice of songs.

 

[paulb3375]

Ah yes, I meant 'barre'!

I just Googled it and there are lots of people giving advice on how to tackle barre chords so I think I will have a go and see how I get on. I think once I got to a certain standard then my enthusiasm for the guitar would return. I normally get frustrated at my slow progress and give up for a year or two at a time!

The best tip i learned was to roll your index finger on its side slightly, i find it's stronger away from the natural bend of your finger so you don't have to press down as hard so it's easier. It is also harder on an acoustic, the strings tend to be heavier and the string height higher as boab says to get more volume. If possible perhaps try on an electric guitar to build technique.

 

[ColinJ]

The best tip i learned was to roll your index finger on its side slightly, i find it's stronger away from the natural bend of your finger so you don't have to press down as hard so it's easier. It is also harder on an acoustic, the strings tend to be heavier and the string height higher as boab says to get more volume. If possible perhaps try on an electric guitar to build technique.

That's an interesting tip. I can see the sense in that.

I don't have an electric guitar.

My Tanglewood has a moderate action.

I lent my Yamaha to someone who lost the original bridge and the one he replaced it with is way too high; I must try and get hold of the right one. (In the mean time, I might try and file the current one down to lower the action.)

 

[machew]

Anyone who can play more than three cords is just showing off

 

[RWright]

Forgive me for a bit of self-promotion but I posted a You Tube lesson a few days back that may be of interest if someone is looking for a nice (temporary!) distraction from all those hard standard tuning chords... Playing in an open tuning can give you a great sound without too much left-hand effort and it's a cool way of practicing the barre that sits behind barre chords, because in an open tuning the barre itself (one finger across all six strings) is the chord.



Hopefully someone will find this mildly useful.
Kind regards
Derek

Sounds nice. Makes me want to go out and buy another guitar that I can leave in open D.
I have a clip on tuner but I am also lazy. I just have one I can leave in Standard tuning and one I leave in open E now.
N+1 also applies to guitars I think.

EDIT: hmmm, I could try tuning my Strat to open D. I haven't been playing it much lately.

 

[delb0y]

Thanks RWright. But if you've already got a guitar tuned in Open E then everything I said in the video still applies - it's just a tone higher, is all.

Kind regards
Derek

 

[Chromatic]

Anyone who can play more than three cords is just showing off

You are Staus Quo AICMFP!